Rejection: A Perspective

Part of my job for the past year has been working in Acquisitions. This means that I distribute "slush" (or unsolicited manuscripts) to my readers, as well as take some myself. I coordinate all this, and then send out rejection letters, full read notices, and acceptances accordingly.

Whenever I have correspondence with writers, there's a chance I'll hear back from them. Sometimes it's direct, other times it's indirectly. See, there's this thing about the internet...if you say it publicly, someone will read it. I get daily google alerts on my name, links to my site, as well as Mundania's name (so I'll probably get an alert about this entry). I have the alert set up for Mundania because I often find reviews that way on blogs that I wouldn't already know about.

Of course, I also then see the messages, like, "OMG, yay, I got a full read!" or "Fuck, I got rejected!"

Here is the thing that I wish more people would keep in mind...yes, waiting sucks. Yes, rejections suck. Yes, we're really, really slow sometimes. Yes, I'm sure I'm very evil.

But yours isn't the only manuscript being considered, and acquisitions isn't my only job.

I'm now overseeing every aspect of book production (I don't do it all, I just oversee it). The reason why I'm now able to tell people what is happening with their book during all aspects of production, and why I'm able to keep them informed, is because I follow the book from the moment it's submitted until it's released (and afterward, actually). I schedule, I issue contracts, I send books for review, and the hundred other little things that being Senior Editor entails.

We receive hundreds--and sometimes thousands--of manuscripts during the brief months we're open to submissions. My readers work their asses off, and I do everything in my power to answer people promptly. But the primary job of a publisher is to publish the books they have, not to give feedback regarding unsolicited manuscripts.

I realize that if your manuscript has been sitting in slush for two months, or six months, or--god help me--a whole year, it REALLY sucks ass. And you don't get why they can't just hurry up and make a decision. Or, if they reject you, why they can't just tell you why.

Because YOURS isn't the only manuscript there. Even when it gets narrowed down to the final review with the acquisitions editors, there is new slush coming in, plus all of those manuscripts already contracted that are being seen through production. Editors are really, really, really busy. They're not evil. They're not trying to make your life difficult.

So you can also understand how we also don't have time to give feedback on novels submitted. IF you get anything other than the usual form rejection from me--something either encouraging you to resubmit after making changes, or a note about how we liked your writing and would love to see future work--that is a REALLY good thing. Out of the twelve hundred we received during the first half of last year, about eight hundred were rejected off the top. Of the remaining four hundred I sent out custom rejection letters to...under ten, that I can recall. So if you got one of those, that speaks really highly for your writing. Of course, half the time people just bitch back to me about it, so I don't know why I bother.

I have no idea why I'm posting this because 99% of the people who submit never bother researching who they're sending to (I saw a cover letter addressed to Elizabeth the other day...not sure who she is, but she's never worked at Mundania), so I don't expect any prospective authors to read this. But maybe other writer friends will, and they'll keep some perspective the next time they're awaiting a response from an editor.